All 18 stories from PKD’s ‘Collected Stories, Vol. 4’ (1987), ranked
PKD flashback (Book review): Highlights of this fourth Philip K. Dick collection include “What the Dead Men Say” and “The Days of Perky Pat.”
All 18 stories from PKD’s ‘Collected Stories, Vol. 4’ (1987), ranked
‘X-Men: Dark Phoenix’ punches up Jean’s tragic fall
Movie review: The “X-Men” saga gets a do-over thanks to the magic of alternate timelines. This is an improvement on “Last Stand.”
First episode impressions: ‘The Unicorn’ and ‘Perfect Harmony’ (TV reviews)
In this age of easily accessible TV, there’s no such thing as timeslot battles anymore, but for the sake of fun, let’s pit “The Unicorn” (CBS) against “Perfect Harmony” (NBC). The half-hour sitcoms air at the same time on Thursdays.
‘Unbelievable’ takes advantage of binge format to tell a gripping, personal story of a landmark serial rape case (TV review)
When TV scholars look back years from now at trends in storytelling structure, I suspect “Unbelievable” (Netflix) will be seen as a pivotal show. The approach of releasing whole seasons at once was pioneered by Netflix several years ago, but most shows still operate as if they are airing weekly in hour-long segments. “Unbelievable” is […]
First episode impressions: ‘Evil’ (TV review)
“Evil” (Thursdays, CBS) can be added to the grand collection of post-“X-Files” shows, so I have a soft spot for it. But this is an era when “The X-Files” itself gives us new episodes every few years, so I don’t need to be so lenient as when I reviewed “X-Files” Lite shows from the dark […]
‘Cobra Kai’ Season 1 (2018) punches up ‘Karate Kid’ saga
Throwback Thursday (TV review): “Cobra Kai” Season 1 is a pitch-perfect continuation of the ‘Karate Kid’ saga.
First episode impressions: ‘Emergence’ (TV review)
The pilot episode of “Emergence” (Tuesdays, ABC) is a crisply crafted hour of TV that would set the stage for an excellent series in an alternate universe where there weren’t already dozens of recent series about the emergence of the next stage of human evolution. Still, it’s remarkable how gripping and likable this hour is. […]
‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters’ is an old-fashioned creature romp made with modern tools (Movie review)
In the next movie, I’d like to see Godzilla and his nemeses fight in conditions other than driving rainstorms, but even though there isn’t a wide variety of weather in “Godzilla: King of the Monsters,” this is a top-shelf monster spectacle. The titular creature from the 2014 movie is back, and director/co-writer Michael Daugherty and […]
First episode impressions: ‘Prodigal Son’ (TV review)
“Prodigal Son” (Mondays, Fox) does a lot of things right, but they are the same things a lot of other shows have done right. This serial killer procedural/ongoing mystery mix makes nice use of lived-in, almost rundown Big Apple buildings, and the relationships are well defined in the first episode, notably incarcerated serial killer Dr. […]
‘A Scanner Darkly’ (2006) is the most faithful PKD adaptation
PKD flashback (Movie review): This animated film faithfully adapts one of Dick’s best works.